Daylight (Atlee Pine #3)(98)

One man said, “Agents? How about one agent. Atlee Pine.”

Blum was ready for that one. “And Army CID?”

“John Puller is no longer on the case.”

“Do you really think he’s the only agent CID has?”

“That has been taken care of. And if the Bureau was all over it, why have a secretary conducting surveillance?”

“Absolutely right. If I’m just a secretary.”

“You are too old to be anything else.”

“Absolutely right again. I’m just a secretary, nothing more. And I am with the FBI, no one else.”

The man started to say something and then he stopped and stared warily at her. “What does that mean? ‘No one else’?”

Now Blum allowed herself to look confused and uncertain. “N-nothing. I . . . I just meant what I said.”

The man looked at his colleagues and started speaking in a language Blum didn’t understand. But what she could see were their clear expressions of concern.

One of the men nodded and looked at Blum. “Who do you work for?”

“I told you. The FBI.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I work for no other agency.” Blum feigned alarm when she said the last word.

The man looked at her triumphantly. “No other agency? Bullshit.” He leaned down so they were eye to eye. “Tell me who you’re really working for. Don’t lie to me.”

Blum looked back at him stubbornly but said nothing else.

“All right. We will be back to talk to you. And then you will provide the answers we require about you and the man in uniform. Or you will die. Do you understand?”

Blum pursed her lips and looked down.

The men filed out and locked the door behind them.

It was only then that Blum looked up. Her subterfuge had bought them a little time, but that was all. She felt her spine grow soft once more as nearly all hope bled out of her.

Please, Agent Pine, please find us before it’s too late.





CHAPTER





63





PINE WAS SITTING IN HER RENTAL CAR. She had been speaking into the phone uninterrupted for nearly twenty minutes. Now she let out a long breath and waited. And waited . . .

Finally, Clint Dobbs, the head of the FBI branch in Arizona said, “Holy shit, Pine. You sure don’t do anything by half measures.”

“No, sir. Just doesn’t seem to be my fate in life.”

“Just so I get this straight, you’re actually saying there is a blackmail operation that may reach into the highest levels of this government and then spreads out like a spider’s web to God knows where? And the people being blackmailed are presumably doing things to help the blackmailers, using their positions of authority?”

“I don’t think the facts can be explained any other way. And now Carol is missing along with John Puller’s brother.”

“I don’t like the sound of that at all.”

“Neither do I.”

“You said you witnessed Gorman as the shooter?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll need an affidavit to that effect. That’ll help me get the ball rolling.”

“I’ll get it to you ASAP.”

“Nora Franklin? I’ve testified before committees she’s on. I’ve socialized with her. I can’t believe she would be involved in something like this.”

“I’m sure, sir. But the fact is she’s up to her eyeballs in this.”

“But you have no proof of that.”

“They got a four-star general yanked off this assignment at the Pentagon. Puller was stonewalled at every turn on a murder investigation involving a federal agent. He was nearly killed, and the grandson of Peter Driscoll was killed. And I’ve heard nothing in the news about it. And an agent friend of mine thinks NYPD is sitting on releasing Jeff Sands’s ID as a favor to Driscoll.”

“Are you suggesting that Senator Driscoll is involved in this, too?”

Pine said, “I don’t know. I have no proof that he is, but if not, it’s a big coincidence his grandson is involved.”

“And this fancy apartment in New York?”

“Sir, I can think of no other reason to have camera equipment in bedrooms where sexual activity of a possibly criminal or professionally embarrassing nature is taking place. And Franklin’s last political opponent quit the race weeks before the election for unspecified personal reasons, even though he was leading in the polls. Who does that, sir?”

“So you think he was blackmailed into getting out?” said Dobbs.

“I can’t think of any other reason he would quit the race like that, just citing personal reasons.”

“But you’d think the guy would have fought back if they tried to expose him.”

“And what if they threatened his family?”

“So now we’re getting into old mob techniques.”

“Those techniques never go away because, unfortunately, they still work.”

Dobbs said, “How many ‘leaders’ do you think they’ve compromised?”

“I’m not sure. Vincenzo said one night he saw people being taken into and out of the place for hours. He knew they were visiting that apartment because he knew the limo driver.”